IT HAS emerged that the fuel- pump pressure problem that forced Kimi Raikkonen out of qualifying for the opening grand prix of the season could have had its root cause in a conflict between Ferrari’s software and the new-for- 2008 standard ECU, which is manufactured by McLaren Electronic Systems, a part of the McLaren Group. Raikkonen’s car slowed drastically after the Finn had set the second fastest time of the first qualifying session on Saturday, and with the reigning World Champion unable to bring his car back to the pit-lane, he was ruled out of the two remaining sessions. Raikkonen’s Ferrari team admitted on Saturday that the problem had been caused by the electronic fuel pump, but on further questioning by GPWeek on Sunday morning, a conflict between Ferrari software and the MES SECU came to light. “The issue was caused because of two conflicting procedures,” a Ferrari spokesman told GPWeek. “This kind of thing can happen when you are working with one procedure that you do not know so well. Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again.” The spokesman refused to deny that it had been the MES SECU which had been the cause of that conflict but drew short of blaming it directly. “If you have a Macintosh and you use Windows software it can get stuck and you don’t know why. “When that happens you reset your computer.” Raikkonen’s woes caused by McLaren conflict? Symonds: Piquet lacked preparation RENAULT F1 Team Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds has been quick to defend Nelson Piquet’s disappointing F1 weekend debut, telling GPWeek that the Brazilian rookie was hindered by a lack of adequate preparation and an unrealistic level of expectation. “The pressure’s there [and] the preparation wasn’t what I would have liked,” Symonds divulged to GPWeek in the Melbourne paddock shortly before the season opening ING Australian Grand Prix start on Sunday. “You’ve got to look at the circumstances,” he continued. “The fundamental is that he didn’t get in the running that he needed. Our intention coming here was that he did as many laps as possible P1 to P3 and we didn’t achieve that. From that point on, you start to make compromises no matter what you do and we seriously considered ‘should we do three runs in Q1?’ But we didn’t really feel he was going to gain from it as you’ve got to keep it a relatively normal thing. “I can always question, ‘did we do the right thing?’ and I think the circumstances probably say that a third run [in qualifying] might have been better. Would it have made a huge difference? I don’t know.” Symonds also pointed to a level of bad luck that had affected his new driver’s qualifying efforts. “He was bloody unlucky yesterday [in qualifying]. He got a yellow flag and you can’t predict that sort of thing.”